Reading Thomas Mann’s one of the best books – “The Magic Mountain” was an entirely unusual experience for me.
I started to read it at the beginning of 2014. Earlier, during the whole of 2013, I read almost all translated into my mother tongue, the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novels. Additionally, I also explored five books about famous Russian writer (e.g., his biography). After such a promising and prolific year of reading, I was sure that I would go through Thomas Mann’s masterpiece efficiently and fast. Nevertheless, reality appeared a little bit odd.
I was sure that I would read this book within one month, but it took me almost… seven months.
Still, I do not know why it happened, and the only answer which came out in my mind is the fact that sometimes such circumstances can appear in everyone’s lives. I suppose that there was a lot of reasons. One of them is the fact that the pace of reading was calm, blissful, and magical somehow. Now, you can imagine my amazement when I read in Thomas Mann’s novel that the main character, Hans Castorp, had quite a similar situation. Initially, he intended to spend in the Swiss resort, in Davos for three weeks.
Eventually, he spent there… seven years!
The practically almost whole plot narrates about all these seven years spent by the central character in sanatorium based in The Alps. After I opened my eyes and noticed that similar circumstances occurred during my reading, I was not surprised anymore that I planned to read this book within one month, but it took me almost seven months.
For me, it was an unexpected magic.
Probably, Hans Castorp would be surprised as well. What happened during all these seven years of Hans Castorp’s life? I will not write about it. I hope you will borrow or buy the book and start reading.
